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T O P I C R E V I E W

carmelo

The space sickness of Rusty Schweickart on apollo 9 was a permanent affliction? If Rusty had flown again would be returned ?

Tom

Dave Scott does talk about Rusty's space sickness in his new book. I don't think it was that serious, being that NASA later assigned him as the back-up CDR for Skylab 1 (a 28 day mission).

R.Glueck

Actually, I think NASA's (meaning Dekes) crew assignment were a bit unfair in several instances. Rusty was an ultra-liberal for a military pilot, and didn't fit the mold nicely. I think his political views might have colored his reassignments. Bill Anders should have also gotten a second shot, but was passed over. Cunningham and Eisele got payback for what they dished out, but that was Krafts choice. Gordo didn't play the game by the necessary rules. In my opinion, Rusty space sickness was a convenient excuse to deal him out, but this is only speculation on my part.

Matt T

The best account of Rusty's space sickness and it's consequences comes straight from the man himself, at the NASA Oral Histories site -

Rusty's intentions post-Apollo 9 certainly contradict Deke's view, as discussed in his autobiography. Deke thought that Rusty was happy to be passed over for future missions; maybe Deke's way of rationalizing his decision after the event?

As a side note, if you haven't read any of the Oral Histories you're missing out on a gold mine of anecdotes and stories, straight from the astronauts, flight directors, engineers, suit-techs, designers and many others.

Yes i have noticed that he has gone from the crew cuts of 60s at 70s style long hairs,incredibles for an astronaut! so he was a liberal !

Matt T

I enjoy Rusty's perspective on the experience and importance of spaceflight and find it very refreshing. All the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo astronauts were extremely intelligent, perceptive people. Unfortunately very few were comfortable with expressing any kind of intellectual curiosity about the meaning and value of their experiences. The following is excerpted from an informal interview Rusty gave in 1977 as part of a 'Space Day'.

"Brand: So you speculate that experience with biology in space will make us better Earth dwellers?

Schweickart: Sure. It's part of Alan Watts' observation: "What is it I call me? I call me that which is within this membrane called my skin. However what's within this membrane that I call my skin is also that which is not within what is outside my skin." In other words I could play the reference either way. And I will in fact learn more about what's inside my skin if I understand what it is that's not outside my skin. We'll learn more about ourselves as human beings in studying the ground. We tend to focus on the figure.

Brand: So studying the ground of space we got the figure of the Earth?

Schweickart: Yes.

Brand: What then is the ground of which space is the figure?

Schweickart: Life. I mean, it is life which perceives space.

Brand: Go on.

Schweickart: What is it that perceives or conceives of the universe? It's life, consciousness, awareness, or intelligence, or God. You can express it in many ways, but it is that which is the ground on which space or the universe is the figure."

I am so happy to see more people recognizing Carpenter's sense of "being there" and what it meant to the opening of spaceflight. He has been vastly underrated as a part of making regular human spaceflight a reality. And while Carpenter was a competant testpilot and engineer, he saw the larger picture, which many others could not make time to envision. Those lunar crew assignments would have made for an amazing mission, both in science and experience.

FFrench

quote:Originally posted by R.Glueck:Bill Anders should have also gotten a second shot, but was passed over.

Actually, Anders could have flown again, but chose not to. He was backup CMP for Apollo 11 and would have flown to the Moon again had he stayed in the rotation. But he was interested in landing, not just orbiting again as a CMP, so by September 1969 he took himself out of active training to work over at the NASC.